Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia today defended his decision to limit Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim's speech during the budget debate despite protests from Pakatan Rakyat MPs.

pandikar amin mulia ukec student summit Pandikar said that in contrast with the Parliament of New Zealand', the Dewan Rakyat gives ample time to debate the budget.

"Only 12 people are allowed to debate the budget in New Zealand, and the time allocated is only 14 hours.

"For us, it is eight days. Their (New Zealand's) opposition leader can only speak for 20 minutes. Our's gets two hours," he said.

Pandikar also hinted that he intended to amend the House rules based on this but he did not elaborate on the matter.

Anwar was the first person to speak when debate on the 2013 Budget was presented to Parliament last Friday by Prime Minister and Finance Minister Najib Abdul Razak. Najib is also Women, Family and Community Development Minister.

Deputy speaker Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, who presided over the session yesterday, had limited Anwar's speech to 90 minutes.

However, Anwar was later allowed to extend his speech to nearly two hours.

'Lack of substance'

Nonetheless, R Sivarasa (PKR-Subang) and Tian Chua (PKR-Batu) were up in arms over the 90-minute limit imposed and were further vexed that the second person to debate the budget, Khairy Jamaluddin (BN-Rembau), would be given equal time.

"How can you put the opposition leader on the same level as a BN backbencher?" Sivarasa had asked.

NONE Pakatan MPs were also upset that the time cap would also limit the frequency of interjections during Anwar's speech, which was used as an opportunity for them to raise points.

Earlier M Kulasegaran (DAP-Ipoh Barat, right ) had complained that the number of questions that could be answered by limiting the question-and-answer session as well to 90 minutes would be reduced drastically.

To this, Pandikar responded that it was because the MPs were making long-winded statements and remarks on their questions, which had little substance and he urged them to get straight to the point.

"I will write to PKR, PAS and DAP to meet me when I am free, so that we can find ways for the debates to proceed smoothly," he said.

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